Pietro Germi's follow-up to DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE is an acrid black comedy that exposes archaic laws and social norms in Sicily. Saro Urzi plays Don Vincenzo who will stop at nothing when he finds out that his underage daughter Agnese (Stefania Sandrelli) has had her virtue taken by a local scamp, Peppino (Aldo Puglisi).At first, the 'shotgun wedding' solution appears to be an easy out for all involved, but, Germi and his writers keep the twists and events escalating in a boiling stew of dark humor. Just about every character has an angle or an input on the situation. Lawyers, police, scheming relatives, a gap-toothed destitute Baron all get entangled, but the Patriarch, Don Vincenzo, is always at the center.
Don Vincenzo, a local businessman, is above else interested in maintaining his good family name - more so, in fact, than the welfare of his own daughter. Kill Peppino or make him Marry Agnese? Same difference.
If SEDUCED & ABANDONED was a straight drama it would be a harsh pill to take. Fortunately, Germi and cast make it a highly enjoyable romp (although one needs a very sardonic view to fully appreciate it). Urzi is superb as the bombastic Don Vincenzo. He had a long career including stints in THE GODFATHER and Joseph Losey's MODESTY BLASE. Sandrelli (still active!) was only 18 at the time, but, she's become one of the Grande Dames of Italian cinema with THE CONFORMIST, 1900 and THE LAST KISS.
The final bitter irony is that the misogynistic laws that SEDUCED makes its target, lasted for almost another 20 years on the books (the film also includes a choice prescient epitaph of its own). So much for the sexual revolution.
Review of Seduced and Abandoned
